You ever feel like meditation just isn't for you?
And maybe you've tried it and you thought I'm doing it wrong.
Or maybe your brain's just too loud,
Too busy,
Too restless.
And if so,
You're not alone.
And this meditation is for you.
You know,
So many people think that meditation means stopping your thoughts.
Or turning off your brain.
Or just feeling totally calm and zen and peaceful the whole time.
But that's a myth.
Meditation isn't about getting rid of your thoughts.
It's about noticing them.
About gently letting them pass.
Not grabbing onto them and following them down a rabbit hole.
But when you do,
It's about returning again and again to something simple like your breath.
So let's try it.
Not perfectly.
Not all at once.
Just gently.
So let's go ahead and settle in wherever you are.
Sitting is great.
Lying down is fine.
You don't have to cross your legs or twist into a pretzel.
Just get comfy wherever you are.
And if it helps,
You can close your eyes.
Or you can just soften your gaze.
And we're going to begin with just a breath.
A simple breath.
Take a slow inhale through the nose.
And a gentle exhale through the mouth.
And again.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Just like that.
You don't need to breathe in any special way.
Just notice the breath.
The way that it moves in.
And the way that moves out.
And if you're already distracted,
That's okay.
Here's the cool part.
The moment that you notice that you've drifted.
You've already done the hard part.
You woke up.
You came back.
And that's coming back.
Well that my friend is the meditation.
You can just breathe.
And let your breath be your anchor.
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
And when your mind wanders,
And it will,
You can just say to yourself,
I'm thinking.
And gently come back to the breath.
You don't have to be hard on yourself.
You don't have to put yourself down for doing it.
Just say,
Thinking.
And come back to the breath.
Let's do that for a minute.
We're not going to do anything but breathe for a minute.
We'll sit here in silence.
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
And if you notice that you're antsy,
That your mind is wandering,
It's okay.
Just gently bring yourself back to the breath.
Great job.
All right,
So now we're going to shift into something just a little different.
We're going to do a short body scan.
And that just means checking in with your body,
Part by part,
And just noticing what's there.
We're not going to try to fix anything.
We don't have to try to relax anything.
We're just noticing.
So,
Take another deep breath.
And let's start at the top of your head.
Just noticing what it feels like right now.
Is it heavy?
Is it light?
Is it intense?
Maybe you notice a little tension or maybe nothing.
That's okay.
Take another breath in.
Move down to our forehead.
You feel your eyebrows.
Your eyes.
Just noticing if there's any tightness or softness.
We're not judging.
We're just noticing.
Moving our attention to the jaw.
Is it clenched,
Tight,
Or relaxed?
You can let it loosen a little if it feels nice,
But you don't have to.
Again,
The primary focus here is just noticing what's going on in our body.
Moving that awareness down to our neck and shoulders.
And that's a place that we often carry stress.
What's here right now?
You don't have to change it.
You can,
On the out breath,
Let it loosen a little bit.
But mostly we're just checking in.
It's like we're saying,
Hey,
I see you.
I'm aware.
Now just going down the arms.
Your upper arms.
Your elbows.
Your wrists.
Your hands and fingers.
You can wiggle them a little bit if you want.
There's no rule that says for meditation you have to be perfectly still.
Let them just hang there heavy if they want to.
Take another deep breath.
If you're finding yourself distracted,
That's okay.
You can come back to my voice,
Come back to your breath.
We're just going to scan the chest.
Maybe feeling the rise and fall with each breath.
Down into the belly.
Are you holding it in?
Is it soft?
Can you feel the rise and fall of the breath in your belly?
You can even put your hand here for a second and just feel the expansion as you breathe in and breathe out.
Moving down to your hips.
Whatever is making contact with the chair or the ground.
Just feeling that support underneath you.
Moving down your legs.
Your thighs.
Your knees.
Again,
We're just scanning our calves,
Our ankles,
Feet.
Maybe just take a moment to wiggle those toes.
We're just noticing.
That's all.
The practice of meditation is a practice of awareness.
Awareness of yourself,
Of your body,
Of this moment,
Of whatever is going on around us.
And remember,
It's just a practice.
You're not going to do this one meditation and feel totally zen with the world.
Feel like you're a master meditator.
We're just practicing being aware.
Taking another breath in.
And a gentle exhale.
Now you might be feeling more relaxed.
You might be more aware.
Or maybe you're not any different.
And that's okay.
But what matters,
What's cool is that you practiced showing up.
You practiced noticing for these last 10 minutes.
And that's meditation.
And these thoughts keep coming.
And they will.
You can treat them like clouds in a clear blue sky.
You just notice.
Oh,
That one looks like a fluffy bunny.
That looks like a clown.
Oh,
There's an airplane going through the sky.
You're not attaching.
You're noticing and then you're coming right back to your breath.
Or to your body.
Or to whatever you're holding in this moment.
Alright,
So.
When you're ready,
We're going to take one more breath in together.
And exhale.
And start to wiggle your fingers and toes.
Maybe roll the shoulders or just a nice gentle sway side to side.
If your eyes are closed,
You can gently open them.
And just check in.
Notice how you feel.
You don't have to feel better.
You don't have to feel worse.
Just see if you're more aware of what's here in this moment.
You showed up.
You breathed.
You noticed.
And that's enough.
And so,
As you move through your day,
Remember.
You don't have to clear your mind to meditate.
You just have to come back.
Again and again.
And that's something that you can do anytime.
Even now.
Thank you so much for joining me.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
And may you be at peace.
